CEO of S.F. startup tapped for 1st White House Maker Faire

CEO of S.F. startup tapped to show gizmo

Lisa Qiu Fetterman, CEO of Nomiku in San Francisco, will showcase her sous-vide immersion cooking devices.

Lisa Qiu Fetterman, CEO of Nomiku in San Francisco, will showcase her sous-vide immersion cooking devices.

Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle

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President Obama tries Joey Hudy's Extreme Marshmallow Cannon after seeing it in 2012.

President Obama tries Joey Hudy's Extreme Marshmallow Cannon after seeing it in 2012.

Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images

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Nomiku CEO Lisa Qiu Fetterman works at the startup's Mission District headquarters, which sells a sous-vide cooking system.

Nomiku CEO Lisa Qiu Fetterman works at the startup's Mission District headquarters, which sells a sous-vide cooking system.

Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle

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The Nomiku sous-vide immersion circulator cooking device is set and ready to cook at the company's Mission District headquarters on Monday, June 16, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Nomiku sous-vide immersion circulator cooking device is set and ready to cook at the company's Mission District headquarters on Monday, June 16, 2014 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle

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Eggs cooked at four different temperatures show the yolks' consistency by using the Nomiku device.

Eggs cooked at four different temperatures show the yolks' consistency by using the Nomiku device.

Photo: Kevin N. Hume, The Chronicle

CEO of S.F. startup tapped for 1st White House Maker Faire

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Lisa Qiu Fetterman may teach President Obama a better way to boil an egg on Wednesday.

Fetterman, 26, CEO of San Francisco startup Nomiku Inc., was tapped to exhibit her product - a sous-vide cooking system for home use - at the first-ever White House Maker Faire. Dubbed "the greatest show-and-tell on Earth," such events give do-it-yourself tinkerers and inventors a showcase for their wild and wacky creations.

The D.C. faire, like the 100 annual Maker Faires worldwide sponsored by Sebastopol's Maker Media, has a serious side amid eye-popping gizmos like a 19-foot-tall robotic giraffe: inspiring kids to explore science and technology.

"Making is a vital way of learning that's gone missing in schools, and we want to bring it back," said Dale Dougherty, CEO of Maker Media. The White House "event will help make the call that we need maker spaces in schools, libraries, museums and community centers, especially in low-income areas where people may not otherwise have access to tools, materials and mentors."

The White House is also declaring Wednesday a nationwide Day of Making (on Twitter: #NationOfMakers).

Broadly defined, the maker movement includes people working on projects that span art, science, craft, technology and engineering, among other areas. It gets a big boost from cutting-edge tools like 3-D printers, laser cutters and design software.

Obama appears to have some geek-gadget cravings. At a White House science fair two years ago, he gave Secret Service agents conniptions by firing off a marshmallow cannon created by 14-year-old Joey Hudy, who later scored a ticket to the State of the Union address.

1st D.C. maker faire

That flying confectionary is credited with spurring the White House to organize its first Maker Faire, although the invitation-only D.C. version will be less freewheeling than other such events.

The maker movement also has serious economic implications, something the White House underscored in a statement saying the Maker Faire embodies Obama's goal of helping Americans be "makers of things, not just consumers of things."

"The rise of the maker movement represents a huge opportunity for the United States," the statement said. "Nationwide, new tools for democratized production are boosting innovation and entrepreneurship in manufacturing ... creating the foundation for new products and processes that can help to revitalize American manufacturing."

Dougherty said he's witnessed that on the ground. "More and more we're seeing makers turn their projects into a business," he said.

The original Maker Faire, a two-day creativity bacchanalia held annually in San Mateo, this year had more than 1,100 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees. More than 70 exhibitors at the event last month had active Kickstarter campaigns raising some $23 million, Dougherty said.

The Nomiku Immersion Circulator got a big boost on Kickstarter in 2012 where it raised $586,061, the most of any food-related product, Fetterman said.

The device came about after she worked for chefs like Mario Batali and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and told her then-boyfriend, Abe Fetterman, that she "salivated" after their high-end sous-vide immersion circulation systems, which cost thousands.

Husband makes device

"One day Abe turned to me and said, 'I can make one of those' and our lives have never been the same since," she said.

Abe Fetterman, 30, an astrophysicist, devised a compact device that can be immersed in any pot to heat water to a precise temperature. (Noting that fictional superhero Tony Stark theoretically shares that profession, Lisa said: "Imagine if Iron Man made a kitchen appliance.")

Using an airtight plastic bag to seal the food (a Ziploc will do), the device allows for slow cooking that rivals the work of multi-star Michelin chefs, she said.

The couple, now married, joined forces with chef and industrial designer Bam Suppipat to found the company, and have raised $875,000 in seed funding on top of the Kickstarter money. They have six employees who work in a Mission Street office above a videogame store, and have sold 4,000 of the $299 devices since October.

"If you're living, breathing and have a brain, you can create," Fetterman said. "That is the ethos of the maker movement."